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2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs: Friendships on hold as Flyers face Rangers

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Flyers winger Jakub Voracek's friendship with several Rangers who are also former Columbus Blue Jackets will have to wait as the teams meet in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
((Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

It will be strictly business for friends and former Columbus Blue Jackets teammates Derek Dorsett and Jakub Voracek when the first-round playoff series between the Flyers and Rangers begins Thursday night.

Dorsett, now a Rangers enforcer, and Voracek are such good friends that the Flyers' winger is in Dorsett's wedding party in June. But first they'll face each other in what should be an emotionally charged and physical series.

The pair began their careers together with the Blue Jackets in 2008-'09, made the playoffs that season, along with Flyers goalie Steve Mason, and even roomed together on road trips.

“Those are the guys you turned pro with,” Dorsett told the New York Daily News on Saturday. “We’ve been through a lot together. As rookies, we were a part of the first year the Blue Jackets made the playoffs. There were some tough years after that, and all along, it was a tight-knit group.”

The Flyers are 6-4 against the Rangers all-time in the postseason and won the most recent playoff series between the teams' in the 1997 Eastern Conference Finals.